Consumer Buying Behavior

Consumers are any person who buys anything for personal consumption to meet the targeted needs of them or their family needs and wants on their satisfaction. We cannot exactly define but, consumer behavior can simply identify how people make decisions to spend their available resources, such as time, money, and effort, on the consumption of different products and services. There are some different facts will depend to use their resources to behave in their buying process.

• What they buy
• When they buy
• Where they buy
• How often they buy
• How often they use 

Consumer behavior is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and all the activities associated with the purchase, use, and disposal of goods and services, and how the consumer's emotions, attitudes, and preferences affect buying behavior. As well as consumer behavior is a set of actions including mentally and physically, in purchasing and using products and services.

Studying consumer behavior

If you are a marketer, definitely you should access and analyze data on consumers' buying habits and what kind of social behaviors and media they favor. According to the globalization and rise of technology in all areas worldwide people are connected to each other without leaving home. So marketers should essentially study on communication and behaviors of each individual to identify what affects consumer's behavior.

• Who makes the buying decision?
• Who influences the buying decision?
• What motivates the buyers to take action?

The study of consumer behavior formally investigates individual qualities such as demographics, personality lifestyles, and behavioral variables (such as usage rates, usage occasion, loyalty, brand advocacy, and willingness to provide referrals), in an attempt to understand people's wants and consumption. Also investigated are the influences on the consumer, from groups such as family, friends, sports, and reference groups, to society in general, including brand-influencers and opinion leaders. So different factors will influent consumer behavior.

• Purchasing Power - This can identify as the main influent of consumer behavior. 
• Marketing Campaigns - Nowadays, marketing campaigns have taken the front seat for marketers to get the product and service to the people with a highly recognized brand with confidence. 
• Economic Conditions - The economy is also act a higher part in Consumer behavior. This is a long time processing fact for the consumer to make their decisions on buying habits. 
• Cultural Factors - a set of basic values, perceptions, wants and behaviors learned by a member of society from family and other important institutions.
• Social Factors - reference groups, family, role, and status.
• Personal Factors - lifestyle, economic situation, occupation, age, personality, and self-concept.
• Psychological factors - perception, motivation, learning, beliefs, and attitudes. Maslow’s Theory of Motivation has explained why people are running their lives by particular needs at particular times. Maslow has arranged human needs in a hierarchy according to their importance buying process. They are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. A person tries to satisfy the most important need first. When that need is satisfied, it will stop being a motivator and the person will then try to satisfy the next important need.

Research has shown that consumer behavior is difficult to predict, even for experts in the field. However, new research methods, such as ethnography, consumer neuroscience, and machine learning are shedding new light on how consumers make decisions. In addition, CRM(Customer relationship management) databases have become an asset for the analysis of customer behavior. The voluminous data produced by these databases enables detailed examination of behavioral factors that contribute to customer re-purchase intentions, consumer retention, loyalty, and other behavioral intentions such as the willingness to provide positive referrals, become brand advocates or engage in customer citizenship activities. Databases also assist in market segmentation, especially behavioral segmentation such as developing loyalty segments, which can be used to develop tightly targeted, customized marketing strategies on a one-to-one basis.